Corales Punta Rusia

We stayed here for 3 nights in January and loved it. Rene is such a great host, and made our visit to Corales unforgettable. While the rooms are basic (although very spacious!) and nothing to write home about, the food & hospitality is the reason to book here. Rene takes care of his guests by feeding them fabulous breakfast and dinner each day. Fresh & simple ingredients, and so flavourful. We went snorkeling at Cayo Arena two days in a row, with Rene's help to arrange the boat. We also spent some time hanging out at the beach in La Ensenada. A great experience overall, and looking forward to returning.

Great hotel experience for the price. Rene, the owner/host, was very gracious and attentive in ensuring a pleasant and enjoyable stay. The service staff was very accommodating and eager to please. Room was neat and tidy with great ocean view. Breakfast was plenty, superb, and varied - toasted baguette, eggs, imported sliced cheeses and salami, crepes, and fresh fruits, and coffee - enough to start the day and have a light lunch or skip it altogether. The hotel is ideally situated in the middle (4 mins by car or an easy walk) of either Playa La Ensenada or the quaint, small village of Punta Rusia. The locals are very friendly and are aware, and act accordingly, that their livelihood depends on tourism. If you are looking for a safe, quiet, and peaceful place to relax or unwind, or if you love being near the ocean as I do, Punta Rusia is the perfect getaway.

Lots of pros and cons to this little hotel, but the former very much outweigh the latter. For a start, Punta Rusia really is the Wild West of the DR, or the untouched part. It’s a dusty little place, so don’t expect posh restaurants or even an ATM! But that also means the beaches are almost deserted, so you can easily claim your own slice of Caribbean paradise. In fact, the main beach, where the boats leave for Caya Arena, is absolutely stunning … water in a myriad of blues, calm (when we were there), and perfect for swimming. Very few facilities though, which is why it’s so quiet and beautiful (apart from the usual DR trash). You can walk down the closest beach to the hotel in about 7 minutes. There’s a cut- through from the road with comes out near the Punta Russia Lodge (gorgeous but very expensive). Before we arrived, communication with Rene was excellent. He really is the perfect host. Breakfast was wonderful … the best pancakes we had on our tour … and Rene cooked us the most delicious vegetarian dinner … huge thanks Rene, and apologies for draining your water supply! Talking of which, as it says in the blurb, water for the hotel is delivered by truck. So if long hot showers are essential to your day, don’t come here. The shower was a dribble. We had a problem with the loo not refilling (hence the draining of hotel water), which was annoying too. Our room on the top floor was spacious with two double beds. Basic but comfortable. You wouldn’t want to spend a relaxing time there. In fact, I’d recommend asking for a first floor room, as the communal sitting out areas there are much more attractive. There is fresh water available throughout the site. Very green. The best part of the hotel is the dining room, which is very sociable and relaxing. We loved the little dogs too, especially Madame Gri. She is a cross between a dog and an aye-aye. You have to see her ears to believe she exists. A unique and super friendly, waggy little creature. Rene can organize trips for you, including a tour of Cayo Arena, and to see the manatees. If you don’t have your own transport, he will take you. We didn’t get to see any manatees, but had a gorgeous wallow in the warm shallow water near the official entrance. Watch out with the Cayo Arena tour … we thought we had paid for the boat for an entire day, but not so … 90 minutes only at the sandbar, and then, everyone back on the boat. This was a real shame as the snorkeling there was fantastic. The boat then raced though some mangroves, so fast we were almost thrown out. Not good.

We only stayed for one night as our purpose in Punta Rusia was only to visit Cayo Arena. Corales was the perfect choice for us as Rene, the owner was very accommodating to our schedule. We arrived in the afternoon in time for dinner, had breakfast in the morning, went to Cayo Arena, then went back to the hotel to shower and check-out. Our plans were last minute, we only decided the night before that we were going to make the trip from Santo Domingo. We reached out to our tour guide from Explora Dominicana who recommended Corales and provided us with Rene's WhatsApp. Rene responded right away and was able to reserve two rooms for us. When we arrived at the hotel our rooms were ready for us. The air conditioning worked very well, there was hot water and the bed was comfortable. Dinner was prepared by Rene and was one of the best gourmet meals I've had on the island. In particular the Marlin was remarkable, but there were beef, chicken and vegetarian items serves as well, all were delicious. We stayed on a weeknight and things were quiet at the hotel and on the street by 10pm, perhaps it picks up a bit on the weekend. When I say quiet... I didn't think there was anyplace quiet in the DR, you always here a moto passing by, not here. It was amazing to be right on the ocean with peace and quiet like you would expect on a deserted island. I wish we would have planned on staying longer for this feature alone. Breakfast was filling; pancakes, or maybe they were crepes, not sure. Lunch meats, cheeses, scrambles eggs, toast. Oh yes, and there's plenty of coffee. We left satisfied and weren't hungry on our subsequent trip to Cayo Arena. Everything was tasty. Now here's the best part. For our trip to Cayo Arena Rene arranged everything for us and even paired us up with two other guests making us a party of 5 which saved us money. At 8am It was a short 3 minute drive to the beach where the boat captain was waiting for us. We immediately left for Cayo Arena making a brief stop to swim in the natural pool, a small area of shallow water around 3 feet deep- make sure you stop here, it was my favorite spot to swim. We arrived at Cayo Arena before any other tourists, and let me tell you, make sure you do the same. Within an hour after our arrival there were over 100 people on the tiny sand bar and they came on big tour boats. The hour we had with few people around was one of the most incredible hours of my life, but as it filled up it became less fun. We weren;t rushed by our boat captain, we stayed at least an hour and a half and he still took us for a half hour tour of the mangroves. The price we paid for the rooms and the boat tour was very affordable and well worth the value we received. We will definitely be back.